Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) by Brian Wilkerson

Whether it’s a
human or a grendel, what I hold in my arms right now is a dear friend.”
    Eric embraced her in return. “I’m lucky I’m second,” he
whispered in her ear.
    “You have no idea,” she whispered back.
    Eric picked up the pieces of meat he hadn't eaten yet and
wrapped them up in a skin. To hold the skin together, he generated needles from
the dirt beneath his feet. Kallen complimented his technique by saying it was
more than any monster could manage.
    Other genuine monsters attacked them on their way to Roalt
and Eric insisted on fighting them all. He wanted to prove he was a mercenary,
not a monster, and could fight like one. Weak from hunger and cold, they were
no threat to a professional warrior mage. The real challenge was to remain
human.
    At the start of his training, Basilard lectured on the
incredible will to live in all monsters. In the face of adversity, they
surpassed the limits of their bodies and defied sapient science in their bid to
continue living. They fought and killed and little else. Even herbivores
defended territory and killed hostile plants. Fighting them was nothing
compared to his own monster.
    It wanted to eat them and then replicate itself with the
young and strong monster accompanying him. It challenge his human sense of self
constantly, and the more he tried to suppress it, the more it fought against
him. He lost the struggle every time.
    When blood was spilled, he gorged himself. When the
moonlight struck Kallen just right, he tackled her and tugged at her winter
clothing. Then her crystal would flash and he would come back to himself. In
either case, he scurried away, bowed his head, and apologized.
    “Repeat the song.”
    “Am I sapient or a monster? Hope or Despair? Where have I
come; where will I go? The Trickster grins. The Trickster grins. The Trickster
grins.”
    Then the process began all over again.
    When they crested a hill, a stone’s throw from Roalt’s
city walls, Eric stopped. The city was society. It was innocent bystanders. It
was not the place for him. He retreated from it. He would have turned his back
and searched for a cave if Kallen hadn’t grabbed his hand.
    “It’ll be fine.”
    “No it won’t. I can’t go back there. I’m dangerous.”
    “I’m the same as you and I’m not dangerous.”
    “I tried to rape you five times on the way here,
and not once did I realize what I was doing. What if I get hungry during a
mission and chew on my teammates ?”
    “That won’t happen.”
    “Why not?”
    Kallen flipped her hair. “No human guy can control himself
around me. That’s why my sidekick is female.” She squeezed his hand.
“Seriously, it’s a good thing that you’re worried. It shows that you don’t want
it to happen and that you’re still sapient at your core.”
    Eric glowered at her. “Was that the real point of this
walk? Shame the monster by rubbing its nose in its poop?”
    Kallen smiled all the sweeter. “Could a monster make such
a deduction?”
    Still holding his hand, she led him back to the top of the
hill. With gentle prodding and smiles, she led him down towards the city.
    “By the way, we’re not ‘monsters.’ The proper term is
‘demon.’”
    “Whatever politically correct term you use, we’re not
supposed to go into the city. I don’t want to get locked up again.”
    He continued walking in that direction nonetheless.
    “Don’t worry about it. We’re not going inside the
city.”
    Snow was piled up against the capital's wall and in
crannies on the main gate. This was to clear the ground in the immediate
vicinity for an art fair.
    There were ice sculptures and snow sculptures by the
dozens in the field. Mages hung from scaffolds and arranged snow and ice into
formations on the city walls. Their staffs acted as a maestro’s baton. Beneath,
stands for hot chocolate, coffee, fast food, and nutrition bars did a brisk
business. In their midst, booths boasted of music both old and new. There was
even a live